His Secret Santa Read online

  His Secret Santa

  His Secret Santa

  Stella Ferris

  Published by Stella Ferris, 2019.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  HIS SECRET SANTA

  First edition. November 19, 2019.

  Copyright © 2019 Stella Ferris.

  Written by Stella Ferris.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  Epilogue

  this is for the little girl who dreamed of being an author. You did it.

  1

  Devyn’s door opened across the room, letting in a cool breeze from the hallway. She shivered as the air rolled over her uncovered skin, and Devyn forced herself to pull her eyes away from the crisp printer paper she had been going over for the next day’s meeting.

  Pushing her glasses up on the bridge of her nose, she watched as Penelope, her office assistant, pushed the door, struggling to shut it behind her. The stack of papers in her arms towered over her tiny frame. She managed to get close enough to Devyn’s desk to let them fall with a thud.

  Penelope let out a loud sigh, using the back of her hand to wipe off the sweat forming on her brow. Her eyes brightened when she saw Devyn across from her and she chirped, “Hey boss.”

  “Hey.” Devyn eyed the stack of different colored paper and point at it, “What’s this?”

  “Oh yeah.” Her office assistant dropped into the chair in front of Devyn’s desk. “This is stuff that was sent over today for you.”

  “Let me guess.” Devyn leaned back in her office chair, folding her arms over her chest, “More stuff for tomorrow’s meeting?”

  Penelope nodded, leaning over onto Devyn’s desk. She ran a cherry fingernail across the stack of pages.

  “Anything of importance?” Devyn raised her eyebrows.

  “Honestly, I just got the papers off the printer in the mail room. I haven’t even looked at the first page. All I know is what was said before being told to bring them to you.”

  The mountain of paperwork in front of Devyn was more than she could get through in one night. It was more than she had been able to get through in her first week as manager of their small store.

  “Great. Thank you for being such a help,” Devyn’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

  “Listen boss, you hired me to fetch your papers and coffee because I’m your little sister’s best friend. I know my place here. If you want me to read through all of that to brief you on what the hell your boss is sending you, I’m going to need a raise.” Penelope batted her lashes.

  “Language,” Devyn shot back. “I didn’t hire you to fetch papers and get me coffee, but now that you mention it, a coffee would be really nice right now.”

  A smirk crept onto Penelope’s face.

  It was true. Penelope was her little sister’s best friend, but Devyn was her best friend, too. Devyn and her sister were only 14 months apart, so her sister’s friends were typically her own.

  “If you would decide whether or not you’re staying in Seattle, then we could talk about more money. I could use someone in sales. I heard our intern is spending most days on her phone.”

  Penelope huffed, “Oh yeah, like I’d be any better. I don’t graduate until next Spring. It’s not like I don’t have time.”

  “Whatever you say, Pen,” Devyn said, sitting upright in her chair. “Okay, so was there another message you were suppose to give me when you got this paperwork?”

  Penelope’s smile faded. “About that.”

  “Jesus Christ, what is it this time?” Devyn’s face fell.

  “Mrs. Girdler, wants Jamie Ray,” Penelope said, “and she isn’t taking no for an answer. She said if she doesn't have at least one store stocked with Jamie Ray Cosmetics before the end of the week, it won’t be pretty. Basically, she wants us running higher production than normal. I overheard the sales department saying she wants the company grossing a million this month.”

  “How are we going to gross a million when we don’t even have a product that will sell that much?”

  “She said we have to get Jamie Ray. That’s all I know. She was going on about it when the customer service department had her on the phone. She doesn’t want to accept we can’t order the product because it was sold out.” Penelope leaned onto the desk, resting her elbow on the faux marble top.

  Devyn plucked the cover sheet off the stack eyeing the red lettering.

  “I’ve already told her, Jamie Ray Cosmetics sold out of everything. We can’t stock more than they make,” Devyn shook her head in disbelief. “How am I supposed to get more units if there aren’t anymore?”

  Maxi’s had been trying to get Jamie Ray Cosmetics in their stores since the company’s initial launch the year before. The company wanted to start small, but then a beauty ambassador got ahold of the products and raved about them on her platform.

  The cosmetics sold out in seconds.

  Jamie Ray Cosmetics announced their Christmas line in late fall, and Devyn had been trying to get it in the store since then. The company wanted a maintainable stock of product, but it wasn’t enough for the amount of people lusting after it. Maxi’s was able to get one shipment from the standard line, but everything else had sold out within minutes.

  Devyn assumed her boss was banking on getting the holiday line in their stores because she opened ten more boutiques across the west coast.

  And that’s the story of how Devyn got her job.

  “Jamie Ray wants to be a small company. There are no holiday collections left. There is no way we can stock these,” Devyn said, finally beginning to let her frustrations show.

  “I know,” Penelope said staring down at the paperwork. “There is one more thing.”

  Devyn gave her a look. “What else?”

  Penelope looked at her lap, staring at her hands as they worked against each other.

  “We’re drawing names for the company Christmas party. It’s going to be the 23rd this year,” she said, pushing her blonde hair out of her eyes and behind her ear.

  Devyn’s heart dropped and a low groan passed through her lips. She dropped her head into the palms of her hands. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  Devyn pressed the tips of her fingers into her skin, pushing hard against her hairline. Christmas was the last thing on her mind. She had a million other projects looming over her and the thought of adding finding a gift for some random coworker was not something she was ready to add to the list.

  “I’m not,” Penelope said, sitting up straight in her chair. “They are drawing for a Secret Santa. It’s a $25 limit. Maybe you should get involved with baking something this year Dev. It can take some stress off you from this job.”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head again, “adding anything but this job to my plate will cause more stress. I just want to get past this issue and try to stock these stores with the cosmetics they need by some kind of miracle .”

  Penelope’s face twisted in frustration. “Why do you hate the holidays so much? As long as I’ve known you, you’ve always been annoyed with the holidays.”

  “When you’ve worked in retail as long as I have, you start to hate holidays pretty quick.”

  Devyn picked up the paperwork, thumbing through the stack. “Listen, I’ll meet you at the name drawing. Whe
n is it?”

  “Three.” Penelope stood from the cream colored office chair and wiped her hands over her skirt. “Maybe it won’t be so bad. You could get Chad. Then you could give him a trophy that says ‘World’s Best Runner Up.’”

  Devyn gave her an icy glare. Not only had Chad Weeks been the person running against her for the promotion at this branch, but he had spent the better half of her time there making her miserable. Devyn spent months putting together plans and improving her numbers to get the job, but Chad didn’t like it. He wanted the job, and that’s all he cared about.

  Better job. Better money. Better everything.

  He wanted to rub his promotion in her face, but he couldn’t. She won, and he couldn’t stand her because of it.

  “Don’t even think about joking about that,” Devyn gritted her teeth.

  “See ya later, Boss.” Penelope threw her head back and laughed over her shoulder before walking out the door.

  Thankfully, the office hadn’t been decorated with a Christmas tree and fake snow like every other store, but the loop of music wasn’t helping Devyn’s already sour mood. The incessant ringing in her ears did nothing for the growing headache she had from staring at printer paper all day.

  If she had to look at one more decline letter from a cosmetic line about adding their product to their store she would scream. Penelope stepped out from the crowd and motioned her forward.

  “I tried to save you a seat away from everyone, but I lost it when you decided to show up late.”

  “Sorry, I was trying to make sure the business didn’t go under,” Devyn sounded anything but sorry.

  Penelope rolled her eyes, pulling Devyn deeper into the crowd of people.

  One of the interns walked up to the front of the room, the bowl holding everyone’s name in her hands. She tiptoed up to the podium where she would stand awkwardly for the rest of the long, drawn out meeting.

  Another person from the marketing department walked to the front of the room, pulling a cord for a microphone out of the corner. Devyn couldn’t remember his name, but he had been here longer than she had.

  “Hello everyone,” he said to the crowd. “It’s time for our annual Christmas Party meeting.”

  A handful of people clapped.

  “For the new people, my name is Chris. I’m the director of Marketing and Advertising, and I am happy to introduce this year’s intern, Stacy Coleman. She is a second year student at the local university and will be helping me with the name draw this year.”

  Another handful of people clapped, but Devyn was already on the verge of yawning. She was up to her eyeballs in paperwork and couldn’t be bothered to deal with an annual event she had always detested.

  “First up to draw is Penelope White.”

  Penelope jumped up, skipping over to the bowl. She dug her hand around in the slips of paper and pulled out a name. She opened the slip and her eyes shone.

  She walked back toward Devyn.

  “I have the best person ever,” she nearly screamed into Devyn’s ear.

  “Next up,” he said, pausing for dramatic effect, “Riley Hayes.”

  “I could literally fall asleep,” Devyn said too Penelope, trying to force her eyes to stay open. “I could be working right now. If I don’t get a handle on this crisis, I could lose everything I’ve worked for.”

  Penelope rolled her eyes. “You probably don’t know how to fix it because you don’t have any Christmas joy.”

  “You are seriously no help to me sometimes.” Devyn rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest.

  The names felt like they were never ending. A company with over 30 employees shouldn’t have a Christmas party where the names are drawn one by one. Why couldn’t names be sent over email to save work time. The setup couldn’t be more impractical.

  “Devyn Kennedy,” Chris called her name.

  She stood and unwillingly let her feet move her to the front of the room. Her fingers grazed the papers in the bowl, and she wanted to jerk it away. She didn’t want to participate in the silly game her coworkers were playing.

  Her hand closed around one of the papers, and she pulled it free. She unfolded the slip.

  You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

  The name glaring back at her was Chad Weeks.

  2

  Devyn had been avoiding Chad Weeks since she got the position they competed for.

  Chad had been within the company longer than her, but she had a bachelors degree in management and retail experience. What she had yet to figure out was why he wanted to manage a cosmetic company to begin with. She didn’t even know why she wanted to manage this company, because in the six months she had been overseeing the branch she had been forced to do impossible tasks.

  She looked back up at Chris, her desperate eyes pleading with him.

  “Can I switch?” Devyn clutched the paper in her hand, hoping she wasn’t speaking too loud.

  His brows knitted together and his lips parted as he started to shake his head, but she interrupted him.

  “Never mind. It’s okay.”

  She swallowed the pride rising in her chest and forced her head down before walking back to her chair, every eye in the room watching her. She closed her fist around the small paper that had just uprooted her entire day. Everyone’s gazes had moved away from her, but the shift of uncomfortable energy hadn’t left her. She couldn’t stop feeling the looks on her coworkers’ faces. The looks of confusion and discomfort for her obvious distaste for the name she had drawn. Unluckily for her, they were probably already putting two and two together. Her cheeks grew hot, the blood rushing to her face.

  She knew no one was paying attention to her, but she couldn’t fight the urge to crawl in a hole and hide.

  “Who’d you get?” Penelope nudged her shoulder.

  She hung her head, passing her the slip. Devyn forced herself to stare straight ahead as everyone else pulled names from the bowl.

  She heard Penelope gulp just like she had. Devyn looked back at her, wearing a look of defeat.

  “It’s going to be okay,” she said, handing the slip back.

  Devyn sighed.

  She looked down at the paper in her hand again, staring at the scrawled lettering. The name was unmistakable. She was his Secret Santa.

  The paper burned in her fingers. She didn’t want to pick out a gift for someone who went out of his way to insult her and claim she only got her job because she was a woman. She wanted this gift to be simple.

  Walk into Bath and Body Works and get the newest holiday scent in lotion and body spray kind of simple.

  Chad Weeks was the furthest thing from simple.

  She crumpled the paper in her hand.

  “I’ve got to get out of here,” she said into Penelope’s ear. “Let me know how the rest of this goes.”

  She got out of her chair and left the crowded room.

  The office was about to descend into chaos since the meeting had already been running for 30 minutes and the work day was nearing a close. Devyn forced herself to put each foot in front of one another. It was only a short walk from the break room to her office, all she had to do was—

  Her shoulder connected with something, sending a stab of pain through her.

  She heard, “Oh shit,” as she mumbled her own apology.

  Her eyes made contact with his, but before she realized who it was already spitting words at her.

  “Why don’t you watch where you’re walking?”

  Chad stood 6 foot 2, towering over her small frame. She wanted to smack the smirk off his face, but forced herself to remain professional even if he couldn’t do the same. Then she saw it.

  The shoulder she collided with had been the same side he was holding his fresh coffee which stained his white shirt and soaked through exposing his skin. Why couldn’t it be any color but white? His sculpted chest was on complete display. Devyn totally needed to look away. She let her eyes roam for a second before meeting his gaze again.
<
br />   Judging from his grimace and the steam rolling off his stomach, the coffee was a fresh one.

  “Are you okay?” She bit her lip, trying to conceal the look she had been giving him.

  He looked at her dumbfounded, his wide eyes crazy with fury. He swung his arms around. “Does it look like I'm okay?”

  “Let’s get you a first aid kit.”

  “No.” He swatted her hand away as she tried to lead him into the storage room. “I don’t need your help. You’ve done enough.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” She crossed her arms over her chest, leaning onto one foot.

  “I think you know what that means.” His gaze cut through her.

  “Actually,” she started, “I don’t think I do. Why don’t you enlighten me?”

  “You,” his finger jabbed into her collarbone, “don’t deserve what you have. You can’t handle it. You’re such a wreck right now you couldn’t even watch where you were going. You’re the reason i’m soaked with scalding coffee.”

  She gritted her teeth, forcing herself to remain quiet.

  He laughed, “What? Nothing to say? I wouldn’t say anything either if I knew it was true.”

  “In case you forgot, I’m your superior.”

  “Oh, how could I possibly forget? This job handed to you,” he spat back at her, leaning in close to her face.

  Devyn choked out a laugh, rolling her eyes at him. She bit her tongue, rolling around the possibilities in her head. She could blow her top and finally end this feud between them once and for all, or she could suck it up. The latter would let her keep her job. And despite the hell it was giving her, she didn’t want to give it up.

  She couldn't give it up.

  “You know that’s a lie.”

  “Come on, Kennedy, I know how you got this job.” Chad leaned on his heel, pressing his back against the wall. “How did she taste? The only way you could get where you are would be sleeping your way to the top. Or did you screw her husband too? I bet you enjoyed that.”

  Blood pooled in her cheeks and her hands curled into fists.